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Séan Ari Cauthon
Séan was born in the year 161, on the fringe colony Nova-Hibernia to Judaeo-Gaelic descended parents. His father was employed in local law enforcement, and his mother worked as a teacher. He grew up a notorious prankster and delinquent. Showing great potential and intellect, but little to no interest in neither justice nor the acquisition of knowledge. The only exceptions being anything related to arms, warfare, military history, and the histories of his two ancestral people. Early Career Séan was eventually forced into service in the local colonial militia by his father, to "teach him some character". He showed an uncommon aptitude for command. As well as an ability to inspire staunch loyalty in others. But also a penchant for less-than-honorable tactics, and downright underhanded treatment of officially issued materiel. On several occasions he was reprimanded and given detention in the colonial stockade for drinking on duty, establishing a gambling-ring, and for misappropriating military materiel such as firearms, ammunition and explosives for personal entertainment. And on more than one occasion, stealing shuttlecraft for joyriding. He eventually grew tired of this continuous dance, and his father's ever-growing disapproval and distance. He made sure to learn all he could about ship command, space combat and other related matters, before deserting. He stole a ship, took along a skeleton crew of like-minded individuals, including amongst others his second-in-command and unofficial quartermaster, Katrina Voss, a childhood friend and occasional paramour, before heading for the big'n black to make his fortune. He had some initial success as a mercenary in the neighbouring Sector, but found it far too confrontational for his tastes, preferring smuggling, scams and other crimes less prone to retribution. However he still maintained some measure of a twisted moral code, and hated pirates and brigands with a passion. He still accepted more conventional merc contracts if times were tough, but only if the odds were greatly in his favor. He also naturally allocated a fair bit of his ill-gotten gains to modify his Starship to fit that usage better over the years. Such as adding special hidden compartments for smuggling. And outfitting his starship, which he named Tranquility as a tribute to a ship in an old story he'd read as a child, for speed, stealth and hit'n run tactics rather than the outright slugging-match fighting style common at the time. He spent some years criss-crossing through Domain territory. Always ending up on the run from the local law at some point. But also maturing greatly, and developing a penchant for wanting to help the little people, and a deep hatred of mega-conglomerates and their blatant exploitation of the so-called 'centgrinders' during that time. He eventually arrived in the newly colonized Region of Pel's Aurora. Little did he know what the future had in store for him there... Warlord, partisan, liberator, and governor. Upon arriving in Pel's Aurora, Séan and his crew of misfits found a place far more welcoming and natural to their kind. The Domain only had a tenuous presence here on the fringes of human civilisation. And the colonies of the region were almost entirely left to their own devices by their corporate overlords. He quickly discovered that the region was flush with other unaffiliated warlords as well. But also, because of this, had begun seeing a buildup of forces from the Order of the Soaring Eagle. (Which would later gain the nickname "Snoring Beagles" amongst the local warlords".) Séan and his crew attended a meeting some time after arriving between all the most prominent local warlords. Amongst which were such prominent figures as Leith Bothright and Meri Gaiko. At this "summit-of-scoundrels" they decided to "grab the bull by the balls" and launch an all-out assault on the main base of operations for the Order in the region, located at the Catana COR system. A decision that would later prove to have more far-reaching consequences than any of the warlords present could have foreseen. The assault on the Catana COR base was an almost unmitigated success. The Order's forces were completely decimated. In this battle Séan began his later infamous tactic known as "get behind the big'uns". Where he would utilise his ship's fairly powerful forward mounted laser cannons, and his diminutive hull profile and other stealth systems to hide behind larger allied ships and act as a sort of sniper. After the battle, several of the warlords decided to occupy the now captured Order station. Séan amongst them. And they began a sort of free-port for all local warlords to operate out of. Sharing running costs and responsibilities. With the Order firmly ousted from the region, the warlords were largely free to operate as they saw fit. Séan began a partnership with two of the other most prominent warlord captains with whom he shared the starbase. Captain Meri Gaiko and captain Morgana "Gothy" Gothycmalaise. He also maintained some more strained relations with captain Leith Bothrighte, who was taking a more direct-rule approach to the station. This would later culminate in a schism in the pirate's republic that would see captain Bothrighte leave the region for a time. In their second month in the region, both Séan and Meri were getting more and more frustrated with the issues regarding the aquisition of Dork Matter. Tritach had a monopoly on the DM trade, and were, unsurprisingly, both mismanaging their supply lines, leaving colonies more often than not completely abandoned, and woefully abusing the power the monopoly gave them. Séan had previously established some decent relations with the RCEO of Ronstal. And the two captains secured a sizeable care-package of munitions and Dark Matter from them in order to execute a daring raid against Tritach mass conveyors in order to weaken the megacorporation. He installed two new heavy rotary lasers, and captain Gothy's old ship brain, which turned out to have gone clinically insane from some trauma. No one could make sense of what. But the brain, nicknamed Loco-Lucy, became a strangely beloved oddity, and was treated more as a member of the crew than a piece of technology. Even if she occasionally reverse-flushed all the toilets if she was startled. The two daring captains forged their callsigns, ID-codes and hull markings to look like ships belonging to the rival Lukkastor megacorp. And within few days hit several Tritach mass conveyors. This ended up causing an all-out war between the two megacorps that would see Tritach completely driven from the region... for a time. After this operation, captain Cauthon found himself with a sudden overabundance of captured weapons and other m ilitary materiel from both the order and Tritach, along with the dark matter supplies they had taken. At first he attempted to simply flog off these ill gotten gains, as they were a massive hog on the Tranquility's cargo space. But finding that most colonies already had enough weapons, were reluctant to deal with warlords, or offered prices that were downright laughable. He once again found a more innovative solution. In his and Gaiko's absence, as well as many others of the warlord consortium he had fallen in with being off on different endeavours, one of their fellows named Grace Margaret had exploited the absence and made off with all the heavy frigates they had previously annexed from the order. Which had been meant to be crewed by rotating shifts of mixed crews from all the consortium warlords and set to protect their new freeport. Grace's betrayal, and several other warlords taking their leave of the consortium, or being killed, led to Cauthon sending out a call to arms, of a sort. He had flyers posted on the station, and in sevaral other neighbouring systems. As well as spam mail and popups sent out to offer all displaced, downtrodden or otherwise vagabondish people of the region to come to the newly renamed New Nassau system. There he used the weapons and armour taken from Tritach, and the professional military training facilities left on the planet below by the order, to arm these people and turn them into his own personal mercenary company, nicknamed the "Browncoat Rangers" due to their often dirty personal clothing worn over the armour, and to reflect their combat dovtrines. These trash-troopers, as they would often be referred to by visitors, were eventually turned into a surprisingly efficient force, trained primarily in guerilla doctrines such as ambush, sabotage and hit'n run tactics. He also took the opportunity to solidify his control over the station, while captain Gaiko took a deeper interest in the planet below, where she eventually founded a colony. In time there would be a schism of sorts, between the "skydwellers" and the colonial citizens that would result in captain Cauthon relocating his entire operation. Cauthon also formed the intelligence wing of the Browncoats, nicknamed the "Greycoats" for their ability to blend in with the grey masses of the more civilised worlds. And set about having them infiltrate several colonies, and even some corporate worlds. Upon consolidating his control of the station, renamed Hornigiold station for an old pirate that Cauthon had read about in his youth, he found himself suddenly actually responsible for a lot more people than he was used to. He was now the leader of both a starport and an army, albeit a small one. And it took him a while to truly adjust to accepting these responsibilities, Over the next two months he attempted various schemes to make money. At first for his own ends. But gradually his goals turned towards trying to actually better the lives of those who now called him theur leader. He tried establishing a brewery on the station, and a couple of failed cooperative business ventures with Gaiko. And after finding that even his mercenary company was in low demand due to their nonexistent reputation, shoddy equipment and dubious levels of proficiency he found himself in a gradually more desperate need of something to actually do. His contacts in Ronstal had no need of mercenaries. And most colonies could barely afford to upkeep their own militaries. His little pirate republic was also seeing increased pressure from corporate interests who were non too pleased with the prospect of having an ever more established warlord presence in the region. Or a freeport that paid neither loyalty nor taxes to any entity. Cauthon and the Tranquility crew spent the next months doing the occasional odd jobs for some colonies, delivering supplies, ferying colonists and stealing whatever they could in the process. Never making more than just enough to keep them afloat, and keep the station running. As the Browncoats became ever better trained and equipped they also began taking over as the security force on the station from the disenfranchised comapny of espatiers left there by another captain. Whom Cauthon decided to absorb into his own forces. The Browncoats, now began to number as a small army more than a merc company, as the hobos and vagabonds of the region flocked to his banner. Their big break came when Cauthon struck a deal with colonial deputy of Dracona to trade "work for grub" in a sense. The Draconans had developed a new form of powered armour, and wanted to hold an exercise, both as a demonstration and as a last beta test before full field deployment. And offered Cauthon a free shipment of the mk.I model if he would lend a regiment to the wargames. Where they would be participating along with a regiment from the Eagle Guard of Rho Aquilae. In these wargames the Browncoats showed a fighting spirit, and captain Cauthon a knack for tactical flexibility and ingenuity that would impress both the Draconan and Aquilean commanders. Cauthon cleverly spent most of the two first exercises not fighting to win, but probing the weaknesses and strengths, as well as the tactical and strategic tendencies of the opposing forces. And observing their mode of operations and their utilisation of both equipment and environment. Before utilising the Browncoats' advantage in maneuverability and unorthodox command structure in order to exploit both the opposing forces' weakest moment and snag the victory in the final exercise. The Aquilean commander is said to have told Cauthon "I've never seen anyone command a depressing pile of hobos with such ruthless honour". Cauthon also performed a recon/exploration mission for the colonial deputy of Dracona, in which he discovered an anomalous signal on one of the barren planets in the system. Information he chose to keep for himself rather than divulge to the Draconan authorities. It was upon further inspection determined to be an ancient Tarak vault. But was at the time impossible to get into. After the events at Dracona, Cauthon was contacted by Gareth Kedvés of Rho Aquilae. His commander had been impressed with the Browncoats' performance, and during their talks Cauthon, being his usual notoriously irreverent and frank self, had shown sufficient anti-corporate sentiments for Kedvés to risk inviting Cauthon to join The Free Systems alliance. As the alliance was preparing to openly begin defying Innovaganix, and saw the use for both the Browncoats as a supplement to their miloitary forces, Hornigold Station as a strategic point outside of corporate control, and Cauthon's personal talents. Cauthon had himself for a while pondered the idea of trying to instigate open rebellion of a sort against the megacorps that he despised so much. And fight for a free and independent Pel's Aurora. And he was delighted to find an already established organisation working towards these goals. He formally joined TFS in (((whatever month that was))) of 197. And was there introduced to many that would later become some of his most trusted friends and associates in the years to come. Notably captain Melina Luther, colonial deputy Hieronymus Ingran and the aforementioned Gareth Kedvés, whose sister Cauthon eventually ended up marrying. After joining TFS, events suddenly started steamrolling for Cauthon and his crew. The Innovaganix containment war kicked off with the massively successful Operation Shellshock. In which Cauthon and the Tranquility played a key role in the battle at Regotha. Where captain Luther made great use of Cauthon's strategy of hiding in the RADAR "shadow" of larger ships in order to remain undetected, and sniping at maneuvering thrusters and observatories with his powerful lasers. Cauthon and Luther also took the opportunity to raid an HMMC conveyor after the battle. In the aftermath of Shellshock, and with the divison of loot from Innovaganix. Cauthon managed to snag one of the escort frigates that had been captured by the Aquileans. Which due to a typo in an inter-faction communique became known as the "Grigate" It was formally renamed the CSV Michael Collins, and tasked with patrolling the New Nassau system under the command of Nikola "The Ram" Horaček. Category:Characters